Local

ABC Says Procedures Are Changing Following Local Sting

Posted on July 6, 2013 by chriscallahan

Virginia ABC says it’s amending its procedures and will now include a uniformed agent when it carries out operations such as an April sting in the parking lot of the Barracks Road Shopping Center. Alcohol Beverage Control now says an agent in uniform will serve as a contact person on occasions when plainclothes agents approach people who are suspected of breaking the law. This is the latest development following an ordeal for 20-year-old University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly. Plainclothes agents confronted Daly and two members of her sorority on April 11th in the parking lot outside the Harris Teeter. The state agency has indicated its representatives suspected a case of sparkling water that one of the young women was toting was a case of beer. The 911 tapes we aired Thursday and Friday showed Daly, sorority sister Anne Downey, and another woman were terrified by the sudden presence of the ABC plainclothes agents with one of them taking a gun from its holster. Both the City Council and the Albemarle Supervisors have weighed in on the April incident. Dave Norris has told fellow councilors he’s been concerned the ABC apparently did not let the Charlottesville Police know what it was planning. The ABC says it’s had tens of thousands of contacts between its agents and suspected underage alcohol purchasers over many decades. Agency representatives say this is the only time events have escalated to such a serious degree.